Keep your house cool with ESP8266 #2.

After doing the hardware part, intercepting the IR beams and make them play using the ESP8266, I've changed also my Homy3 application in order to accommodate the new device AirCon.


So after the app is starting is identifying all devices.

As you can see there is an AirCon device discovered.

Accessing the AirCon device allow me to turn it On or Off. I've kept the toggle button to display the current state of the air-conditioner. 

Perfect. Now I am sure that I will find a nice cooled air in the house by the time I get home. 

Esp8266 meets LoRaWan

I guess that you don't have any doubts that ESP8266 can do LoRaWan.

For this project I've used two modules:

1.LoRaWan Single Channel Gateway

Single channel gateway ( to be compatible with LoRaWan you must have 8 channes) was made using the SX1276 module and a Raspberry Pi2. Comunication is done over SPI using wiringPi library.

Single channel gateway

2.LoRaWan node with ESP8266 

For node I've used the Witty module with the modifications from this post.
As a software I've used the ported LMICv1.51 and modified to send data to only one channel since the gateway is single channel ( I am using 868.1Mhz).

Lora Node with ESP8266

Now the gateway is enrolled in TTN ( https://thethingsnetwork.org/) and the data has started to arrive. I've managed to receive also data from other surrounding nodes.


On the gateway data looks like:



Packet RSSI: -107, RSSI: -105, SNR: -11, Length: 108

rxpk update: {"rxpk":[{"tmst":368384825,"chan":0,"rfch":0,"freq":868.100000,"stat":1,"modu":"LORA","datr":"SF7BW125","codr":"4/5","lsnr":-11,"rssi":-107,"size":108,"data":"Wqish6GVYpKy6o9WFHingeTJ1oh+ABc8iALBvwz44yxZP+BKDocaC5VQT5Y6dDdUaBILVjRMz0Ynzow1U/Kkts9AoZh3Ja3DX+DyY27exB+BKpSx2rXJ2vs9svm/EKYIsPF0RG1E+7lBYaD9"}]}


and data from my nodes:

Packet RSSI: -28, RSSI: -105, SNR: 12, Length: 31

rxpk update: {"rxpk":[{"tmst":1060664170,"chan":0,"rfch":0,"freq":868.100000,"stat":1,"modu":"LORA","datr":"SF7BW125","codr":"4/5","lsnr":12,"rssi":-28,"size":31,"data":"QGIH4AIAqgABvJNVF4DpUapp/xQN1REVnI+jYoR6Ig=="}]}

Next I'll have to add sensors to nodes and to run some tests for range and buy a real gateway.

More info about LMIC port and code here.

Witty ESP8266 module RGB LED removal

As you already know the Witty ESP8266 module has an SMD RGB LED on board. 

The LED colors are connected to some GPIO pins.

RED is connected to GPIO 15
GREEN is connected to GPIO 12 
BLUE is connected to GPIO 13

For a project I want to use the GPIOs 12,13,14,15 for a different functionality so I need to remove the LED from the board.

SMD LED for Witty ESP8266 board

In the above picture the pins 2,4,6 are connected together to the GND. 

Instead of removing the SMD LED I cut the common ground as you can see in the following picture.

Later if I need the LED functionality I can redo it very easy.

I've tested the board, and no sign of LED on board. Perfect.